Sustainable Style: Prefab Futuristic Green Home Design

By Dornob Staff

Like any good sustainable design the zeroHouse has all kinds of green bells and whistles, but it does something that many eco-friendly designs fail to do when they get too carried away with sustainability: it also looks extremely cool. Green home design strategies are balanced with beautiful prefabricated materials, colors and finishes.

The zeroHouse collects solar power and can store energy for up to a week’s worth of use. It also gathers rainwater in an elevated 2700 gallon cistern so that gravity can do the work rather than tapping into the power supply. Waste is processed into dry compost below the house. Insulation and day-lighting are used to balance internal temperatures and maximize thermal performance.

The house has everything needed for a short-term getaway or long-term residence, including a living room, kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms and an elevated, covered deck. Everything in the house is automatic, with master controls tied to a central laptop computer.

This seems to be more and more the trend within green design: building homes that take maximum advantage of versatile materials, prefabricated parts, energy indepedence and other sustainable design strategies while maximizing style, comfort and livability.